Electrical lighting has become commonplace in modern society. Electrical lighting devices are commonly deployed, for example, in homes, buildings or commercial and other enterprise establishments, as well as in various outdoor settings. Even in a relatively small state or country, there may be millions of lighting devices in use.
Traditional light fixtures, such as light fixtures (i.e., luminaires), have tended to be relatively dumb, in that they can be turned ON and OFF, and in some cases may be dimmed, usually in response to user activation of a relatively simple input device. Light fixtures have also been controlled in response to ambient light detectors that turn on a light only when ambient light is at or below a threshold (e.g. as the sun goes down) and in response to occupancy sensors (e.g. to turn on light when a room is occupied and to turn the light off when the room is no longer occupied for some period). Often traditional light fixtures are controlled individually or as relatively small groups at separate locations.
With the advent of modern electronics has come advancement, including advances in the types of light sources as well as advancements in networking and control capabilities of the light fixtures. For example, solid state sources are now becoming a commercially viable alternative to traditional light sources such as incandescent and fluorescent lamps. By nature, solid state light sources such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) are easily controlled by electronic logic circuits or processors. Electronic controls have also been developed for other types of light sources. As increased processing capacity finds its way into the light fixtures, it becomes relatively easy to incorporate associated communications capabilities, e.g. to allow lighting devices to communicate with system control elements and/or with each other. In this way, advanced electronics in the light fixtures as well as the associated control elements have facilitated more sophisticated lighting control algorithms as well as increased networking of light fixtures.
However, deployment of substantial numbers of light fixtures with associated controllers and/or sensors and networking thereof presents increasing challenges for set-up and management of the lighting system elements and network communication elements of the lighting system. Commissioning the lighting system to create a physical or logical networking map of the space in a room, building, etc. where the light fixtures are installed is a manual process. Installers (i.e., human beings) will often take hours or multiple days to coordinate where light fixtures are coordinated in relation to a map of the space and the applications for which the light fixtures are being controlled, such as for visual light source based positioning system or networked space lighting system. As a result of the manual mapping process, mistakes are often made and installation becomes more of an iterative process for installers rather than “one and done.”